Dream Glow Pavillion: Colorful “Mushrooms” at the Shenzhen Light Festival
"Dream Glow" by Daxing Jizi is a pavilion with the theme "Searching the Glow of Future", located in Universiade Center, Shenzhen, China. The festival aims to unify arts into urban life and create a comfortable place for recreation as well as add fun to the children who play around. The original purpose of the design at this festival was to create a small-scale building that could be used as a relaxing space for the public.
Dream Glow Pavilion is located in the central green area of the Universiade Center
The green area at the center of the Universiade Center was chosen to place the Dream Glow Pavilion. Although this green area is not specifically designed for leisure, the surrounding residents already consider it a small park, if the weather is good some of them bring a pedestal for picnics and many children play in this area. Creating a comfortable place for recreational people, and adding fun for the children playing around it, is our goal.
The pavilion domes are wrapped in colored, translucent, and matte soft films
The pavilion is inspired by the shape of mushrooms and lanterns consisting of five traditional Chinese colors; turquoise, yellow, purple, red, and deep black. Daxing Jizi designed 12 lamps using synthetic paper that has the advantage of being resistant to water and allowing light to penetrate, with an open space of 360 degrees. All these "mushrooms" have the same floor height as the grass area, aiming that people who are in the grass area can easily move into the pavilion. On the one side, there is a road that can be easily accessed when someone is carrying a baby carriage to enter the pavilion.
Dream Glow Pavilion - a place for visitors to interact with light and nature
During the day, the pavilion can protect from the sun so that it can provide a sense of comfort when someone is inside the pavilion. As night falls the bright pavilion emits light, drawing attention to the green area to rest, relax and interact while enjoying the beautiful atmosphere of light and nature. In winter, people come to the pavilion to spend time accompanied by warm sunlight that gives rise to a sense of calm, comfort, and fun while in the pavilion.
Top view of Dream Glow Pavilion
Dream Glow Pavilion is designed to encourage social interaction in the surrounding community directly. When social media disrupts urban life, individuals become secretive, while the things that connect and unite humans will gradually disappear. This work is expected to present an understanding of how reality and nature can encourage people to live a "real" life but with their bodies and minds. Daxing Jizi hopes that the Dream Glow Pavilion festival can distract people from digital devices to come to the pavilion to enjoy the surrounding nature.
Dream Glow Pavilion presents an understanding of how reality and nature can encourage humans to live "real" lives
Dream Glow Pavilion plan
Elephant Theater: A Pavilion Made from Elephant Dung
In 2020 Bangkok Project Studio visited the village of Ta Klang in Thailand, a village famous for its elephant pets. The founder of Bangkok Project Studio, Boonserm Premthada found a lot of elephant dung along the village road. Seeing that Boonserm Premthada experimented with making bricks from elephant dung. They studied its properties, then tried to use elephant dung as a construction material.
Boonserm Premthada designed Elephant Theater
In its experiments, Bangkok Project Studio noted that elephant dung has a spherical shape with a diameter of 180 millimeters in dark green but its color changes to brownish green after exposure to air. Bricks made of elephant dung are made one by one by forming in molds and then dried without using the brick burning process to avoid the appearance of harmful carbon dioxide. In addition, elephant dung can naturally decompose and return to being part of the soil.
Boonserm Premthada said, "Usually herbivorous animals eat Napier grass, making the manure they emit fibrous making it suitable for use in brick making."
Elephant Theater is circular
In 2022 Boonserm Premthada built a pavilion "elephant theater" as part of the Biennale Architecture and Landscape of Versailles located in France. This is the result of the application of brick bricks made of elephant dung. One brick has a diameter of 255 millimeters with a thickness of 50 millimeters. The circle in the central part serves as a space for the structure of the steel reinforcement pole.
The Elephant Theater is made of elephant dung brick arrangements
The circular building is made of steel pole structures with piles of bricks arranged to form a closed space without a roof. Upon entering the pavilion, visitors will be greeted with colorful fabrics waving at the entrance from the pavilion. Inside there is a path that is the visitor's access to see the space inside the pavilion. In addition, there is also a small garden that opens up to the sky, sunlight, and air expressing the stunning elegance of nature.
The Elephant Theater is made of elephant dung brick arrangements
Inside the pavilion is a small garden that opens to the sky
Bricks made from elephant dung can be a small start for humans to reconsider the positive impacts that arise for the world.
"My work will continue to tell the story of rural communities, the environment, and natural resources, to make people realize the importance of things they don't see," Boonserm Premthada said.
Elephant Theater as part of the Biennale Architecture and Landscape of Versailles
Vertical Chalets Installation in Milan Design Week 2021 | Peter Pichler Architecture
In the Milan Design Week 2021 event, there are more than 60,000 architects, designers, artists, and craftsmen participating. One of them is Peter Pichler Architecture. Placing it in the courtyard of the Università Degli Studi di Milano, Peter Pichler and the team created a prototype structure inspired by local Austrian vernacular architecture, reinterpreting it in a contemporary way. This project is a small-scale representation of the hotel project in the Alpine region, “Vertical Chalets”.
The project itself was developed for the alpine region and was implemented for the first time on a site located near Kitzbühel, Austria. The project of “Vertical Chalets” was presented at the Fuorisalone Exhibition, an event curated by Interni Magazine. It will be displayed at the exhibition until the 19th of September 2021.
In this project, the importance of the relationship between humans and nature is used as a fundamental criterion. This project seeks to activate and strengthen the human senses by using simple and local materials. This will then provide an immersive spatial experience with nature. This work introduces an innovative approach to sustainability and a new, progressive form of tourism, in which the relationship between people and nature is central.
This frame is designed to filter light in the living space and ensure privacy while creating a unique space experience that feels like a bird's nest. When this structure is exposed to sunlight during the day, it will create an interesting light and shadow effect, while at night it will make the building glow like a lantern in the forest.
ALIS, Zaha Hadid Architects Moveable Pod at Venice Architecture Biennale 2021
Zara Hadid Architects (ZHA) introduced Alis at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 which is a moveable pod with an innovative space concept for physical and digital connectivity. Carrying the "Shaping The Future" as a visualization of future developments using 3D Print and CAD/CAM tools.
Maximize flexibility and comfort with the latest technology facilities inside. Following the concept as a "moveable" installation, Alis can be changed in both indoor and outdoor settings, and can also be used in public places such as train stations and airports. This pod also allows it to be dismantled and moved in different configurations, this is as a concept application of the ZHA design characteristic of redefining architecture with technology and integration for a more optimistic future.
The concept of the design of this space is adapted from orchid petals on the outer facade that borders the glass walls of the room in a cubicle and transparent shape. Its function is to keep the room easy to get light from the outside and maximum efficiency of private space.